Traveling with Che Guevara

August 30, 2004
This moving memoir recounts an eight-month-long South American tour that Granado, then a 29-year-old doctor, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, then a 23-year-old med student, took in 1952. Guevara recounted the trip in his The Motorcycle Diaries
, but Granado's account—published in Cuba in 1978 and now being published in the U.S.—equally illuminates the roots of Guevara's revolutionary consciousness; it's also a detailed and sad portrait of poverty and corruption in 1950s South America. Granado's book, which he wrote contemporaneously, perceptively shows how young Guevara was "a doctor who, though brilliant, was trapped in the confines of the medical trade." Granado sees that Guevara's privileged background has "not dulled his sensitivity." As they travel through poverty-stricken towns in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, Granado constantly notes how "the injustice of it filled us with hatred." At times the discourse doesn't rise above generalizations like this. But in the book's most moving sections, Granado powerfully portrays leprosariums the two visited and industrial towns where families had been exploited by industrialists—both scenes that influence Guevara's belief in "the strength of the working people." Photos. Agent, Robin Straus.
(Oct.)

Forecast:
Timed to coincide with the release of Walter Salles's film
The Motorcycle Diaries, this should be well received by the growing number of readers who have been rediscovering Guevara's life and times.

Starred review from September 1, 2004
In 1952, two young, educated Argentineans set out on a motorcycle to travel their America, from Co/roba through Chile, Peru, Colombia, and, finally, Venezuela. After two months, they abandoned the bike and traveled by whatever means they could scrounge the same way they found room and board. Remarkable as they were for their educational backgrounds, that one was a 23-year-old medical student named Ernesto "Che" Guevara makes their story even more special. Guevara's diary was not published in English until 1995. Granado, then 29 and a biochemist, published his own diary in Cuba in 1978. A British edition appeared in 2003; this is the first U.S. edition. Simply stated, this on-the-road account of life among South America's common people is a delight, filled with remarkable descriptions of the flora, waterways, and cities. A movie based on both diaries, directed by Walter Salles and produced by Robert Redford, will open this fall. Highly recommended. Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Libs., AL

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.